This here is a prop used for the promotion of the proposed Magnetic Levitation train to be built in Munich, Bavaria. The Transrapid trains obtain 265mph (430kph) in passenger service and can reach higher speeds on those same passenger lines. This YouTube video shows a fantastic (and sweetly short!) demonstration video of Transrapid's test facility in Emsland, Germany. Unfortunately, earlier this week, the train at this test facility crashed into a maintenance vehicle that was not integrated into the line's safety systems. An incident such as this is believed to be impossible in revenue service as such a vehicle would be integrated into safety systems.

There is also a Transrapid in Shanghai, China. The entire system is amazingly beautiful and futuristic. Honestly, I don't think you can get more modern than this train. There are quite a few more good YouTube videos here, here, here, and here.

(YouTube, Flickr, and Wikipedia all in a blog post? Web 2.0 buzzwords aplenty!)

Visit my flickr page: j.reed

Labels: flickr

Unfortunately for the owners of the new World Trade Center complex, no one wants to work in the new Freedom Tower. A realativly small portion was leased by government agencies, but the remaining space has still not be claimed by any private corporations. Maybe they don't want to move in because the building doesn't seem like it will be finished (or even started) anytime soon?

The people that work for the agencies that have made a commitment to move into the new tower, such as the Port Authority, aren't all that thrilled. Basically the employees that don't want to move in are scared of what might happen. Now you must be mindful of the fundamental concept of terrorism. Terrorists aren't out to blow up a building, they're out to instill fear (read: terrorism) in us and affect the way we live our lives. This building has been designed with the previous tower's collapse in mind. The only faults of the Trade Center was lack of communication and a partial lack of stairways in the south tower and complete loss in the north tower. Many people below the impact zone successfully evacuated. Had the tower's fireproofing remained in place, it is disputed that the towers may even have remained standing.

Labels: new york

I'm not a huge fan of the BMW 6 series, but this sexy beast with the two tone paint job is a hottie. Who knows what the engine specs are, usually I'm a big fan of those, but this is too sexy to even bother. If you'd like to read them head over to this post at Autoblog.

According to Nielsen Media Research, TVs now out number humans! You can find approximately an extra TV for every 8 people. With more and more children getting their own TVs in their rooms, people with extra cash throwing TVs in places like garages and bathrooms, and the family's standard TV in the living room, your average household is set to be taken over by a race of super man eating TVs (TiVos declare neutrality). On average each household has 2.55 people (seems low to me!) and an average of 2.73 TV sets. (Just feel lucky you're not the poor sap with only 73% of a TV set in your room!) An interesting aside is that Nielsen reports that teen TV watching has either been declining or remaining steady compared to previous levels (probably because of MySpace!

Nielsen Media Research is a firm that monitors, among other things, the shows that people watch. My buddy Dave Johnson just recently got invited to take part in their monitoring. Dave represents literally thousands of households when he watches Telemundo.

This is the first time I've noticed my store was in the newspaper for something I was a part of, but its pretty neat! I know of another store in the county that ends up in there every time they catch someone. Who knows why this one made it in and others didn't?

Today is the first day of fall, and that means that my favorite season, winter, is up next! I love the sounds and sights of the fall, the crunchy leaves, the wind blowing them around, people's wood burning fireplaces, and my favorite -- spiced wafers and milk! I'm looking forward to working the always fun 4th quarter at my job in retail and most of all, the first day of skiing! (This has come as soon as Thanksgiving week in the past!)

Visit my flickr page: j.reed

Labels: flickr

Recently over at AutoBlog I saw this post, and you kinda have to read it and view the embedded video if you want to get the gist of this post. Someone somewhere with this warped sense of road rules got the notion that people actually obey the speed limits and shouldn't be punished by riding over some annoying bumps. The concept is that as your vehicle approaches at a speed over the limit, the bump is deployed. If you watch the video you may see some problems with this system.

• The system is only in one lane, just drive around it!
  
• A system spanning two lanes would punish traffic coming the other way.
  
• Motorcycles are exempt with the gap in the middle.
  
• Honestly, I'd just drive faster than the bumps can deploy!

I've always driven fast over speed bumps, the bump is less severe -- learned that from my dad!

I've previously mentioned that New York was the most polite city and now they've been named the safest big city for 2005. Crime in the Big Apple has dropped %17.7 since 2001!

When I visited, I felt pretty safe everywhere but Chinatown (everything was closed and it was quite dark!). Terrorism funding leading to increased police presence just about everywhere has definitely helped. The influx of upper middle class residents displacing some less desired housing possibly has helped too. Either way, NYC has come a long way from the seedy past of the 70s and 80s.

Labels: law enforcement, new york

Today be t'international talk like a pirate day! Buckos all over t'world be talkin' like pirates t'day, and thus, I've it in 'iss blog post. Eu'rry year on t'19th o' September all buxom beauties and mateys be talkin' like ye olde pirates! All ye scurvy dogs will be walking t'plank off t'poop deck and windin' up in Davy Jones' locker if ye not be talkin' in t'language o' t'day. For ye salty sea dogs who be needin some instrucksun be nav'gatin to dis here link for sum vid'yo t'torials.

I be donnin' me pirate hat and me pirate teeth f'or t'day tomorrow. I been takin pics for all ye scurvy dogs of me self in me pirate booty!

Update: Gothamist (my favorite city) is caught a little off guard and Phillyist (my home city) is well informed.

PC World has named MySpace.com the #1 worst web site. If you're not one of their pathetic 90 million users, basically its a website that you go on to get "friends", the more "friends" you have, the cooler you are. The saddest part is that its not just for teens, adults are using it too. They're generally just adults looking for some people their age, but there are the rare cases of child predators out there too, and MySpace has been criticized for their lack of features to protect minors.

Users modify their own page using the skills they learned when they got their Masters degree in Graphic and Web design. Basically they're just embedded annoying wav or mp3 files and gem'ed out animated gifs that say "baby" or "sexy". Their pages are also a haven for spyware and viruses, since generally these people aren't the best computerphone users in the world.

If you feel there isn't enough drama in your life and are just vying for more, go sign up at MySpace. You'll have someone hating you for some comment you put on there or wondering why you don't ask them to be "your friend". If you want to go for the double whammy, put something on there about how much you hate your boss or your job and prepare to be fired in no time! You know your boss that loves drama? She's sure to be signed up on MySpace hunting down employees.

Just the past Monday was, as I'm sure everyone knows, the anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington DC. NYC marked their loss of the Twin Towers through two sets of high powered spot lights shinning up in the sky. Seen here from Brooklyn with the famous Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground. I was hoping to go up there and see it for myself, but it was too late to do that by the time I thought of it. Hopefully they'll do it again and I can get up there and see it first hand.

Visit my flickr page: j.reed

Labels: flickr

this post includes an embedded video availible here

Labels: video, video games

Well, I don't even know if this post is going to work, details on that are below. I'm sitting at work in the CCTV room waiting for infant formula boosters to come in. They've wiped out my store and a few others in recent days. Of course, I wasn't here for the times they came to my store. Yesterday my boss caught a juvenile that was forced by their guardians to push out a couple of cans of formula wrapped up in a Wal-Mart plastic bag (and my store isn't a Wal-Mart last I checked).

We've also had some teft of Mach 3 and Crest White strips. These people bring their products to Camden, NJ (pretty much the city with the highest crime rate in the country) and sell them to bodegas to get a measly $5 per can. The store owner then resells it though WIC fraud.

I've posted this with my new Palm T|X, wireless keyboard (nearly full size!) and my Motorola SLVR's Bluetooth connection to send this to Blogger. I've also used it for taking all of my notes at class this year, so far both of my professors have commented on it and seemed impressed. One asked me if I could get on the internet and then said that "I'll know what you're doing while you're looking down and not paying attention to me".

I have Wifi on this thing and I have an Apple Store and a Panera Bread right up the street who both offer Free Wi-Fi. I want to drive up there to test it out but I don't really know what I'd do once I got online! I do need lunch though. Eh, I'll probably just get chicken fingers and try out WiFi somewhere else. It seems like all McDonalds have WiFi too, however, it seems that you may have to pay for it??

Anyway, hopefully this email went through and posted to Blogger. Otherwise I've just wasted a good few minutes of typing.

Update: I was using the wrong email address so this didn't get this posted until late.

A few weeks ago the guys at Bizzare Creations rolled out a web upload feature for Project Gotham Racing: 3 for the Xbox 360. I had already taken some photos so I uploaded them. It is just stunning what this system can do. Pictured is Big Ben and a blue Ferrari Enzo.

Visit my flickr page: j.reed

Labels: flickr

Some crazy folks think they're having some problems with their Xboxesness. And when you blame it on the awesome game Dead Rising, you're gonna get a response from me!

A quick background on the game, from Wikipedia:

The game takes place from September 19 to 22, 2006. The player character, Frank West, is an overly zealous freelance photojournalist who investigates a series of suspicious events in Willamette, a small town in Colorado, by helicopter, as the town has been quarantined by the National Guard. Flying overhead, he notices what appears to be a brutal riot, and witnesses multiple murders. Frank leaps onto a mall roof near a helipad, after reminding his pilot to return to pick him up in exactly 72 hours.

You get missions to rescue survivors with other main missions to discover the truth behind why the flip all these zombies are in this very attractive mall. Everything in the mall is a weapon, some more useful than others. For example, a hanger doesn't do as much damage as a stuffed teddy bear or a baseball bat. You can even put traffic cones on top of zombies' heads.

People are claiming that they can't even start their game and they blame it on the disc. Some have had their boxes replaced or repaired and they still have problems. What I find odd is that I have had my Xbox since December 26th, one of the first 15 that my store received. I've not had any problems, no red lights, no freezing, nothing! The only problem I've had was that PGR3 froze while loading a game and in the system blade, which seems to be a common bug. These problems have to be a very small percent of all the systems. Its probably getting blown out of proportion with the ability for multiple outlets to report on the same problem and therefore make it appear bigger than it is. Some people have said that the reason for the Dead Rising problems is that it is the first game to utilize all 3 cores in the system. I think its just way too busy rendering the pictured titties; note the perfectly round baby feeders and the boxy pant suit -- no complaints here!

I'm hoping to finish Dead Rising soon so I can send it back to GameFly and get my next game! So exciting!

Delays, lack of exclusive titles, presumably larger and heavier than the original Xbox, really shoddy pre-release marketing (too many old Japanese men and no scantally clad attractive Japanese women), controllers lacking innovation, redonkulous price point, low end version lacks upgradeability to 100% of the high end version, lack of 360 beating screen shots, lack of a unified single cost online system, and what should be worst of all: a non-American company that currently has the majority market share.

Heres a very funny Conan clip about baseball in 1864.
this post includes an embedded video availible here

Labels: funny, video

Nothing fantastically artsy here, since this early Saturday flickr friday is rushed. The Roosevelt Islands Tramway in New York City has finally come back online since being down after a malfunction back in April. The trams were stranded in-transit with passengers on board for many hours. Seen in the background is the Queensboro bridge. See if you can't find my photo of the tram and the bridge in my flickr photos.

Visit my flickr page: j.reed

Labels: flickr